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Idols used to be hulking things, creatures of wood and metal that lived in temples dark with a terrible holiness. Now they're sold by Apple and fit in our pockets.

So says Andrew Bacevich, a Boston University history professor, in the latest issue of the Catholic magazine Commonweal. His piece, subtitled "Of Idolatry & iPhones,"makes his conclusion quite clear.

Bacevich draws on the old Henry Adams claim that the symbol of Western society was, for centuries, the Virgin Mary. With the coming of electricity and the rise of science, Adams identified the new symbol of society with the dynamo. Electricity served as a proxy for freedom, for progress, for liberation from drudgery. (See chapter 25 of the autobiographical The Education of Henry Adams.)

Today, the smartphone has supplanted the dynamo, but Bacevich argues that such devices fulfill a similar talismanic role in our lives as we worship the freedom and power than they and other computing machines grant us. But thinking we are free, we become enslaved.

As successor to the Machine Age, the so-called Information Age promises to empower humanity as never before and therefore to complete our liberation. Taking the form of a wireless handheld device, the dynamo of our time has truly become, as Adams wrote, “a symbol of infinity.” Rather than spewing masses of stone and steam, it offers instant access to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

The Information Age does something else as well, however: it displays in stark terms our propensity to bow down before freedom’s reputed source. Anyone who today works with or near young people cannot fail to see this: for members of the present generation, the smartphone has become an amulet. It is a sacred object to be held and caressed and constantly attended to. Previous generations fell in love with their cars or became addicted to TV, but this one elevates devotion to material objects to an altogether different level. In the guise of exercising freedom, its members engage in a form of idolatry. Small wonder that aficionados of Apple’s iPhone call it the Jesus Phone.

Bacevich's thesis is a stronger version of the old claim that we spend too much time staring at screens, that life was meant for so much more. This has been a special concern for religious leaders; this year, an interfaith group including the National Council of Churches, the US Catholic Conference of Bishops, and the Islamic Society of North America held a "media fast" during Holy Week. They asked people to step away from smartphones, TVs, laptops, desktops, and e-readers for a week in order to "enter into the 'brave old world' of unmediated connection," as one minister put it.

The argument also has distant shades of agrarian Christian writer Wendell Berry, whose famous short 1987 essay "Why I Am Not Going to Buy a Computer" also lamented that that technology could become an idol distracting us from what truly matters in life. "I do not see that computers are bringing us one step nearer to anything that does matter to me: peace, economic justice, ecological health, political honesty, family and community stability, good work," Berry wrote.

Only when someone has used a computer to write a work superior to that produced by Dante will Berry "speak of computers with a more respectful tone of voice, though I still will not buy one." (One of his 9 theses about new technology was that "it should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools," which suggests he would not be a fan of smartphones, either.)

For both Bacevich and Berry, computer technology runs the risk of sapping "real" connections to place and to people. Offering us freedom, our devices enslave—or at least distract us so badly that we have limited time left for sustained interpersonal effort and honest labor.

One thinks of T.S. Eliot's lines in the first of his Four Quartets about people who are "distracted from distraction by distraction." Instead, Eliot sketches a two-fold path into spiritual meaning. The one way requires the focus that comes from darkness

to purify the soul
Emptying the sensual with deprivation
Cleansing affection from the temporal.

But, in a line that whose wording was far more prescient that Eliot could ever have known, he noted that modern life gives no quarter to the inner stillness necessary for contemplation, self-knowledge, and divine connection:

Not here the darkness, in this twittering world.

The wrong target?

Incessant screen time poses real concerns, of course, but Bacevich's brush sweeps a bit broadly, even for his fellow Commonweal readers. "This very day I exchanged several text messages and photos with my children, using the iPhone that Mr. Bacevich considers such an item of depravity," said one."Indeed, I've been formulating a letter to Steve Jobs to congratulate him on having devised such a marvelous device. I have never heard of the apparatus being called a 'Jesus phone'; that seems disrespectful. On the other hand. I can imagine that Jesus would have liked one; he could have rung up Mary and Martha and explained that he'd be late for the funeral, but would put things right when he got to town. St. Paul, surely, would have found use for the technology."

Another defends smartphones, saying, "I"m an old woman, and i won't go into details, but mine is helping keep me out of a nursing home. What more can you ask from a mere machine? Oh, yes, and it makes it very easy to call the cops or ambulance if necessary."

Still others think Bacevich has the right answer but the wrong target. "If we talk about the idol of technology, we need to talk about Facebook (the [iPhone] is simply a delivery system for content)." A similar critique was also leveled against Berry: when he loathed computers because they ran indirectly on strip-mined coal (used to produce electricity), his target should have been the method of power production, not the device that uses electrical power.

All of which raises the question, especially for the "younger generation": can you use a computer or a smartphone without turning it into a amulet? Or is the nature of modern, Internet-enabled connectivity so addicting that, given access to gadgets, many people will prove unable to use them with the proper self-mastery?

Idolatry is the act of worshipping a created object instead of the creator.

Many people put their faith, adoration and even love of their iDevices before God, that is idolatry. Whether someone believes in the God of the Bible or not, the fact remains that many people seem to have an unhealthy attraction of smartphones/tablets/computers. Just look at apple fans with their blind devotion to anything with a fruit logo.

Terms of Service contracts have become the new holy text. Equally cumbersome and filled with rules about what you can and can't do, that almost no one really listens to. We all know about it, few read it.

Really? Bacevich comes across as a "get off my lawn" scared of things he doesn't understand curmudgeon.

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Only when someone has used a computer to write a work superior to that produced by Dante will Berry "speak of computers with a more respectful tone of voice, though I still will not buy one."

Does he not understand that the device didn't write Dante's Inferno? Dante wrote it -- and if he had written it today, it would have been on a computer.

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(One of his 9 theses about new technology was that "it should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools," which suggests he would not be a fan of smartphones, either.)

Then he should stop driving his car as well -- unless his car was manufactured before 1980 since cars are full of computers today.

Idolatry is the act of worshipping a created object instead of the creator.

So people should be worshipping Steve Jobs?

No, you should be worshiping the engineers who actually created the iphone. Always remember, worship the engineers, for without them you would have nothing...

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Quote:(One of his 9 theses about new technology was that "it should be repairable by a person of ordinary intelligence, provided that he or she has the necessary tools," which suggests he would not be a fan of smartphones, either.)

Everything should be repairable by everyone? What crap is that? I don't even know how to begin to reply to such stupidity. Let us all just stop scientific development and brilliant engineering so that the average person can understand the world...with God and the church's help of course.

Is this just not an obvious statement that the church REQUIRES pre-industrial civilizations so that they can be the sole guardians of knowledge?

The child-indoctrinatingly-cute cartoon mascot of this OS is a devil holding a pitchfork. This OS -- and its Darwin offspring -- extensively use what are called "daemons" which is a program that hides in the background, doing things without the user's notice. If you are using a new Macintosh running OS X then you probably have these "daemons" on your computer, hardly something a good Christian would want!

My daughter recently finished up a summer at Yellowstone where she had to give up internet and smartphone useage for almost 4 months (as well as TV). She talks of the blackout in near spiritual terms, and it really has made her rethink many things.

We do not know what the long term effects of being a digital native will be. I am hesitant to condemn it out of hand, as any change causes a knee-jerk mental reaction in content adults of disquiet and aversion.

However, there are some troubling indicators that reading and concentration are taking a hit. But I also sense that there is a growing self absorption and narcissism, and that the smartphone useage patterns resemble addiction.

This is ridiculous, he might as well claim that the hammer, or the drill is an idol.

He's trying to draw parallels that don't exist. I think it's more a factor of lack of imagination on his part, he can't imagine a world where people don't need to worship a "higher power" to get through their day to day lives. This is the sort of flawed logic I come to expect from the religious establishment.

Instead of picking on his minutiae, let's look at his overall concept from a non-religious viewpoint. I think he has a point. We need time for lying in the sun, for hanging out with friends, fishing, meditation, and so on.

I grew up with computers: my first computer was an Acorn Electron, then a C64; I studied CS at Uni, and have worked with them pretty much all my life. However, as I'm sure most of you agree, it can be a love/ hate relationship.

One poster mentioned WOW. MUDs and RPGs were more my drug of choice. I avoid playing them now. Enough said of that.

Recently I met some old friends (from 10 years ago) at a conference. In the break time, instead of chatting & catching up, we all went to different corners of the room, and caught up on phone texts, news, facebook etc. I'm guilty too, but in retrospect, I found that sad.

Maybe I'm getting old, but I do find myself struggling to put away my phone and focus on the people in the same room with me, or on my own physical needs for quiet reflective / contemplative time.

From an LDS (Mormon) point of view I discussed a related idea with my wife the other day. Our scriptures talk about the white stone from the Book of Revelation as being a way of learning things in the afterlife:

"Then the white stone mentioned in Revelation 2:17, will become a Urim and Thummim to each individual who receives one, whereby things pertaining to a higher order of kingdoms will be made known"

Our iPhones and iPads have started feeling like a mortal version of that mythic white stone- our portal to knowledge of all earthly ideas/data. They can definitely be distracting, but also elevating. It all comes down to how they are used.

Idolatry is the act of worshipping a created object instead of the creator.

Many people put their faith, adoration and even love of their iDevices before God, that is idolatry. Whether someone believes in the God of the Bible or not, the fact remains that many people seem to have an unhealthy attraction of smartphones/tablets/computers. Just look at apple fans with their blind devotion to anything with a fruit logo.

Well, if you're the religious type you can justify the idolatry by saying that God guided Jobs hand in creating the iDevice...it was ordained!

The author of the piece in Commonweal was probably talking to the other parishioners one day after mass, and wittily noted that "these `i-phones', the way the youth worships them, they are like idols..." Content with his own simile and in possession of the email address of an editor of Commonweal, he fired up his old Pentium and turned his casual remark into a homeopathically diluted article. Best to be ignored make fun of.

What I find most offensive is this:

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[...] technology could become an idol distracting us from what truly matters in life.

Instead of picking on his minutiae, let's look at his overall concept. I think he has a point. We need time for lying in the sun, for hanging out with friends, fishing, meditation, and so on.

I grew up with computers: my first computer was an Acorn Electron, then a C64; I studied CS at Uni, and have worked with them pretty much all my life. However, as I'm sure most of you agree, it can be a love/ hate relationship.

One poster mentioned WOW. MUDs and RPGs were more my drug of choice. I avoid playing them now. Enough said of that.

Recently I met some old friends (from 10 years ago) at a conference. In the break time, instead of chatting & catching up, we all went to different corners of the room, and caught up on phone texts, news, facebook etc. I'm guilty too, but in retrospect, I found that sad.

Maybe I'm getting old, but I do find myself struggling to put away my phone and focus on the people in the same room with me, or on my own physical needs for quiet reflective / contemplative time.

But that's an issue with you (us) as people -- not the smartphone. Bacevich is trying to pin social issues on electronic devices when it's people that make the decisions on how to use their devices. Hate the game (society), not the player (smartphones).

This is ridiculous, he might as well claim that the hammer, or the drill is an idol.

He's trying to draw parallels that don't exist. I think it's more a factor of lack of imagination on his part, he can't imagine a world where people don't need to worship a "higher power" to get through their day to day lives. This is the sort of flawed logic I come to expect from the religious establishment.

As is this from those who want to attack religion. I have not really heard of anyone suffering stress from having their hammer taken away from them. There have been psychological studies about what happens to many people when they are forced to "unplug". The reality he is talking about is real, so there is nothing illogical in what he says. He just inserts God where someone could insert "relationships", "significant other", "life", etc. Given his believe in God, it makes the whole thing very logical.

Actually I don't think he's far off the mark. We laugh at the idea of worshipping a golden calf, but that's because we don't understand the symbolism. The golden calf basically represented wealth, power and fertility, and by worshipping it the Israelites were saying "this is what we pursue and trust in". Today the iPhone and iPad represent the same things, and we pursue them for the same reason. When we buy an iPhone or iPad, we're not simply buying a thing to use. We're buying something that we hope will scream a message to other people that we're cool and have spare cash to throw at the latest gadget. We buy into a brand trusting that the sexiness of it will rub off on us. It's an aspirational item, and "we wants it" but it's not like it's the only idol we might seek after. Individualism could be seen that way, as could safety and security. The old favourites of money, sex and power are also pretty healthy.

Of course, you might not think this is a problem, and that only Jesus freaks worry about this kind of stuff, but if you stop and think, I'm sure you can think of least a couple of people whose love of all things Apple is an unhealthy obsession which causes friction with other people.

Bacevich's thesis is a stronger version of the old claim that we spend too much time staring at screens, that life was meant for so much more.What a stupid idea tell that to the fisherman or farmer who can check prices in markets miles apart instantly. The idea that fangirls are worshiping the mighty apple is clearly true though, what do women like more than a phone? a smart phone that lets them buy jewellery, perfume, shoes and get discounts at their favourite stores.

On a serious note, a device is a device. If you use it too much or inappropriately that's on you, not the device. It can't control your life, if you choose to do what the magic phone tells you to do that's again on you. Don't demonize us all because you can't control yourself.

The child-indoctrinatingly-cute cartoon mascot of this OS is a devil holding a pitchfork. This OS -- and its Darwin offspring -- extensively use what are called "daemons" which is a program that hides in the background, doing things without the user's notice. If you are using a new Macintosh running OS X then you probably have these "daemons" on your computer, hardly something a good Christian would want!

OMG that site is funnier than ED...

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The real operating system hiding under the newest version of the Macintosh operating system (MacOS X) is called... Darwin! That's right, new Macs are based on Darwinism! While they currently don't advertise this fact to consumers, it is well known among the computer elite, who are mostly Atheists and Pagans. Furthermore, the Darwin OS is released under an "Open Source" license, which is just another name for Communism. They try to hide all of this under a facade of shiny, "lickable" buttons, but the truth has finally come out: Apple Computers promote Godless Darwinism and Communism.

*Ding dong* Hello, my name is Elder Jobs, and I've come to share with you this most amazing phone...

Sorry, I had to...

On a more serious note...women and children in this day and age communicate using an electronic device...30 years ago, they held sleep overs to accomplish the same thing, needing a whole evening to share the gossip of the week. 300 years ago, they had sewing circles...3,000 years ago, watering holes. Men use electronic devices now, 30 years ago it was the bar and the water cooler. 300 years ago it was taverns...3,000 years ago it was sharing drink in the cool shade of a tent.

So we've gotten more efficient with our communications. Oh shit, I see his concern now - the more people talk to each other, the more people might be able to disprove the religious beliefs of others and convert to a more sane rationality, focusing on spirituality as opposed to the religious rule of an iconic personality who claims to have the ear of God. Or worse perhaps, a book written by Man but claimed to be influenced by God that has all the answers to all the wrong questions.

However, there are some troubling indicators that reading and concentration are taking a hit. But I also sense that there is a growing self absorption and narcissism, and that the smartphone useage patterns resemble addiction.

Addiction to what? Talking to your friends? How many hours did the average Gen X'er spend on the phone in their teenage years? Most of the time, they're not "using a smartphone" for its own sake. They're being social. Frankly, I think kids today, especially less socially adept kids, are MORE social now than they were 20 years ago.

Same thing with games like World of Warcraft. That can be a very social activity.

On a serious note, a device is a device. If you use it too much or inappropriately that's on you, not the device. It can't control your life, if you choose to do what the magic phone tells you to do that's again on you. Don't demonize us all because you can't control yourself.

Obviously, and I don't think he's claiming much else. I've often heard it said that an idol is a good thing that WE turn into a "god" thing, so I don't think he's really saying iPhones and all who use them belong to Satan. What I do think he's saying is we should treat it like the tool it is, and not a thing from which we derive our sense of self.

an interfaith group including the National Council of Churches, the US Catholic Conference of Bishops, and the Islamic Society of North America held a "media fast" during Holy Week. They asked people to step away from smartphones, TVs, laptops, desktops, and e-readers for a week in order to "enter into the 'brave old world' of unmediated connection," as one minister put it.

Some religious groups decided to play Amish for a week. Big frackin' deal EDIT: They could at least give up cars or microwaves, if they want to look serious about it

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"I do not see that computers are bringing us one step nearer to anything that does matter to me: peace, economic justice, ecological health, political honesty, family and community stability, good work," Berry wrote.

Huh, little did I know I was wasting my time sending "action alert" emails to my congresscritters through the EFF and ACLU, giving money to international nonprofits via PayPal, sharing photos instantly with my family, and keeping up on local news.

Addiction to what? Talking to your friends? How many hours did the average Gen X'er spend on the phone in their teenage years? Most of the time, they're not "using a smartphone" for its own sake. They're being social. Frankly, I think kids today, especially less socially adept kids, are MORE social now than they were 20 years ago.

You're begging the question. Is "being social" an unqualified good? Is there literally no value whatsoever to solitude?